Indonesian asylum seekers, family members and supporters rejoiced Saturday morning at the Reformed Church of Highland Park as they absorbed the details of the federal ruling Friday night that halted deportations in their community.

"Yes, it's temporary and yes there are many more steps, but that first step has a very high bar," said the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, whose church has housed several Indonesian Christians without legal status since October. "The attorneys have got to make a very solid argument that this has a good chance of winning."

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark, responding to a class-action lawsuit filed Friday afternoon, ordered a temporary restraining order stopping Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting several Indonesian Christians immigrants while she reviewed their request for a second chance at asylum.

The temporary restraining order came a day after a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in favor of Indonesian Christians without legal status with a similar case. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, however, filed a class-action lawsuit requesting protections for not only the named plaintiffs, but other Indonesian Christians in the district who fled religious persecution in their home country.

Friday's ruling does not specify whether ICE can detain those who entered sanctuary or other local Indonesian Christians. Nor does it say whether Gunawan Liem of Franklin Park, Roby Sanger of Metuchen and Parlin Sinaga of Woodbridge could be released from detention. ICE did not respond to email inquiries about the ruling or what it means.

Still, Kaper-Dale said Pangemanan's family and the others in sanctuary will take their chances.

"ICE could choose to detain everybody in this class, put them in Elizabeth Detention Center," Kaper-Dale told the crowd Saturday morning. "That would be really dumb."

He added: "I feel strongly that there's not a huge risk to going back to a normal life."

Pangemanan's family faced a whirlwind of a week since he was almost detained the morning of Jan. 25 — the same morning Liem and Sanger were picked up by ICE agents. He had received an award a week earlier for helping rebuild more than 200 Shore homes destroyed by superstorm Sandy.

A lengthy battle for asylum

While Pangemanan's predicament garnered international attention, it was part of a decades-long ordeal for the Indonesian Christian community in New Jersey.

Indonesian Christians came to the United States on tourist visas in the 1990s and early 2000s, escaping job discrimination and violence in the Muslim-majority country. The influx of Indonesians came as Congress passed a 1996 immigration law that required asylum seekers to file for protections within a year of arriving in the country.

Locals interviewed by the Press say they filed for asylum years later not knowing they had missed the one-year deadline.

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Arthur Jemmy who with his wife Silfia Tobing were offered sanctuary at their Reformed Church of Highland Park , the church believing that special circumstances call for Arthur and Silfia to get ongoing prosecutorial discretion extended to them. October 10, 2017. Highland Park, New Jersey
(Photo11: Bob Karp/Staff Photographer)

Over the years, the local Indonesians became targets for deportation. Several Indonesian Christians without legal status, including Pangemanan, were detained in 2009. Kaper-Dale said advocates struck a deal with the ICE field office to let them remain in the country under orders of supervision. They created a program that encouraged other Indonesian Christians to come out of the shadow and apply for similar protections.

That deal was threatened in 2012 after John Tsoukaris became the field director, Kaper-Dale said. Nine Indonesian immigrants fearing deportation, including Jemmy, Tobing, Tasik and Pangemanan, spent 11 months in sanctuary before ICE relented.

The priorities program under then-President Barack Obama gave local Indonesians a renewed sense of safety. The program ordered ICE officers to target immigrants with felonies, alleged gang ties and other violent convictions.

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Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Highland Park Reformed Church speaks during a news conference about an update on the break-ins of the homes of Indonesian Christian immigrants who remain in sanctuary at the church. Valid passports belonging to the family of Harry Pangemanan and Arthur Jemmy were stolen during the thefts. February 1, 2018. Highland Park, NJ.
(Photo11: Bob Karp/Staff Photographer)

The latest arrests of local Indonesians started months after President Donald Trump ended the priorities program in his Jan. 25, 2017, executive order. All immigrants living illegally in the country were targets for deportation.

Trump has renewed calls for an immigration crackdown as he pushes for Congress to pass his immigration plan that would grant a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants who entered the country as children.

"Any legislation on DACA must secure the border with a wall. It must give our immigration officers the resources they need to stop illegal immigration and also to stop visa overstays," he told Republican Senate members last month. "And, crucially, the legislation must end chain migration."

In 2017, seven Indonesian Christians in New Jersey were deported, Kaper-Dale said. Four self-deported. Sinaga was detained last year; Saturday marked his 111th day at the Elizabeth Detention Center. Liem and Sanger are being held at Essex County Jail.

U.S. lawmakers joined municipal officials in Metuchen Saturday afternoon to call for their release from detention.

"We also now have to really focus on the fact that these men are still in detention," said Metuchen Mayor Jonathan Busch. "Their families and communities are waiting for them and without further action by the government, these individuals will stay where they are."

Lawyers from the ACLU of New Jersey submitted a class-action lawsuit Friday afternoon against the federal government on behalf of Pangemanan, his wife, the detainees and other Indonesian Christians facing similar circumstances. The lawsuit contends:

It is unlawful for them to be sent back to a country where they could face persecution or torture.

It is unconstitutional for ICE to target the community after striking a 2009 deal to get unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows and let them live under ICE supervision.

Indonesian Christians who didn't qualify for asylum because of the one-year deadline are eligible to re-apply due to a recent uptick in religious attacks

The lawsuit was filed less than a day after a federal ruling in Massachusetts that temporarily blocks the deportation of 50 Indonesians. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris on Thursday granted an injunction that gives them 90 days after they receive paperwork of previous immigration proceedings to file a motion to reopen their case, according to the Associated Press. The injunction prevents the government from deporting them until after the Board of Immigration Appeals rules on their cases.

Over the next five weeks, lawyers from the ACLU of New Jersey and the federal government will submit briefs before the judge determines how she will handle the class-action lawsuit.

“We’re really, really happy about the ruling today because it shows that people need a chance. They need to have a fair chance to make fair claims for protection,” said Farrin Anello, one of the attorneys representing the Indonesian Christian community.

.@KaperDale explains the chain of events that unfolded Friday afternoon. ACLU filed lawsuit around 3:50. Judge wanted to hear arguments right away. Around 7 p.m. she ordered a temporary restraining order pic.twitter.com/tPKYJNtvOK

Kaper-Dale and his parishioners rejoiced over the news Sunday morning inside the sanctuary. He took requests for prayers and songs. Sunarto, Pangemanan's wife, requested "Let my people go," also known as "Go Down Moses."

Three dozen parishioners and supporters joined Kaper-Dale and associate pastor Amos Caley as they strummed their guitars and sang:

When Israel was in Egypt’s land,
Let My people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let My people go!

Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land;
Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!